by Kat | Mar 17, 2008 | General
Color Queen! (Okay, so I took a little license with the Beatles song… )
I had a whirlwind weekend – literally. I drove to Glen Arbor to get Sam on Friday – 6 hours round trip. However, I stopped a couple of places along the way. Just a little fiber distraction!
Saturday dawned bright and early – I had a Dyeing Class at City Knitting with Lovely Rita, The Color Queen. Wow. What I learned was truly amazing. Rita is an excellent teacher and my classmates were amazingly creative. Do you find that when you are surrounded with creative people, you are more creative? Well, that certainly was the case on Saturday.
Rita’s wealth of knowledge in Dyeing is amazing – and I have a feeling we just scratched the surface of her wisdom on Saturday.
These are the beauties that I created on Saturday. They are still a bit damp, but the colors are just glorious!
I started with some lovely Alpaca with a Twist Fino – and ended up with 875 yds of this luscious creation.
This is some Henry’s Attic Licorice Twist – a merino with a strand of super wash. I am not certain how much yardage there is, but trust me, it is lots! See how the super wash grabbed more of the color… cool, huh?
Now this is 2 hanks of Peruvian Tweed Superfine Alpaca – 1200 yds of it! Intense, vibrant colors!
And, finally I dyed 4 oz. of Merino/Bamboo roving. See the kind of white sliver running through? That is the bamboo.
I was so happy with my creations! I am itching to try some more overdyeing here at home soon!
Then Sunday I ended up having to drive Sam back to school – another 6 hour round trip. Oh, boy – it feels like I lived in the car this weekend.
On the job front – I have found out my schedule at the hospital and I am going to have to drop the local spinning and knitting nights…. I will have to work on Tuesday and Thursday’s and I won’t get back into Holland until after 7:30PM. That is kind of sad, but I am so thankful for a job that I am not complaining. I also will have to give up choir – as I won’t get there in time either. Small sacrifices in the scheme of things.
On a brighter note, there is a group starting on Monday nights – which will work for me. New beginnings all around!
I need to get moving here, have a great Monday all!
by Kat | Mar 13, 2008 | General
is still kicking my butt.
Okay, I don’t know about you but I am still struggling with the time change. I am waking up at a ridiculous hour and, while I love the lengthened daylight hours, by 8 o’clock at night I am just wiped out! Last night I was going to sit down and read a bit in my new book In Sheep’s Clothing: A Handspinner’s Guide to Wool and I just could not stay awake! This has been my plan all week – to get a little of this book read each evening – but that is not happening! I am hoping that by next week my body has adjusted to this change!
Oh, and have you all seen the new Knitty is up?! Wow, there are some great patterns in there this month! I instantly printed off the Lace Ribbon Scarf and Honeycomb. I have in my stash some Alpaca Sox and some Silky Wool. How perfect, huh? It is a beautiful issue with some great changes – the pattern archive is much more user friendly. So, I need to knit faster on my May Day socks so they are finished so I can start some new projects without a guilty conscience!
Of course that did not impede me too much when I cast on Agatha this week! I knit my swatch and love how it looks! I am using Dream In Color Classy in the Dusky Aurora color way that I got here this weekend! I cast on for the shawl and have completed the set up and one complete of pattern A and B – now I just alternate between A and B until I have a shawl that is the size I want and then I do the edging. It is easy and fun – and I am ignoring my knitting conscience by telling myself that I am so tired – frogging back on my sock will be much more difficult than frogging back on worsted weight yarn. Sounds good, huh?
Okay – next big news…. I have made reservations for Rhinebeck! Sandy and I have plans to head out in October to be part of this event. There was a certain person who encouraged us – so we made reservations here. So, I have my mattress all set to hold all the money I am going to be stuffing into it! I am looking forward to seeing many of you there! I am even going to try and convince this lady to go. She is loads of fun.
And the final bit of information I will leave you with today is this…
The Yarn Harlot is coming back to A2 in April.
April 11th to be exact.
At 7PM.
An evening of fun and laughter. How can you miss?
Have a great day everyone!
by Kat | Mar 11, 2008 | General
Hello everyone. If you are a lover of snow, I am sorry because if you listen outside you will hear the snow calling out like the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz after Dorothy dumped a bucket of water on her…
“I’m melting!!!!”
Yes, we are loosing more and more snow each and every day. After receiving about 110 inches of this wintry white stuff since Christmas – it seemed a bit like a permanent resident!
This morning when I let the pups out I heard the birds celebrating the day!
I am excited for the exit of snow and winter!
I am excited for spring! We have rain in the forecast this week – and over 40 degree weather! Even though a friend reminded me that with rain comes mud – bring it on, baby!
As we work our way through the remaining days of Lent and Easter is coming up fast – I am ready for the renewal of life that happens each spring!
Have a great day everyone!
by Kat | Mar 10, 2008 | General
Hello everyone! Well, it has been a whirlwind weekend for me with Lucy, errr – Sandy (who really needs to get a blog!). And, it ended on a high note with a visit to the Ann Arbor Library to hear Amy Singer speak about No Sheep For You or knitting with something other than wool!
She had Tuscany with her and, be still my heart, I think I have a whole new respect for silk shawls. Wow. Oh what a feeling! I have fallen in lust deep like with that shawl. You will see it shortly in my queue on Ravelry. Must. Knit. Silk.
And how perfect with spring knocking gently on our West Michigan Door.
There were lots of fun and fabulous knitters there as well… lots of fun, extremely fabulous, molto delicioso knitters! There was one shop in particular that seemed to be buzzing on the lips of many there… that shop owners ears must of just been on fire!
Sorry that I don’t have and photographic evidence of the mischief, mayhem, and fun that was had by all – you will just have to take my word for it!
Okay – I am off to knit a bit and make up a schedule for my remaining days as a Gainfully Unemployed Michigan Citizen…
Have a nice evening all!
by Kat | Mar 7, 2008 | General
Yes, that is correct – I can wrap up my tenure with Michigan’s Unemployment Voice Activated Services – or “You can call me Marvin”.
This is no longer The Home for the Unemployed!!
Yes, you read that right – last night I got the phone call from MetroHealth and they offered me a full time position!!!
I begin on March 31st – full time, days.
Yes, days.
I originally applied for the only open position – part-time nights and I was gearing myself up for the changes that would make to my life. But, somehow, miraculously, a full-time days position has come available and they offered it to me!!
I need to truly thank my friend Sandy for her assistance – she introduced me to the people I needed to talk with to get hired there in the first place. And, I need to thank God for His goodness in bringing the position I needed.
I have been unemployed for a LONG time – and it will feel so good to be back in the workforce!!
And, when do I re-enter??? March 31st is my start date. This is just perfect – I don’t have to stress about Easter and work, I don’t have to cancel on any classes I am taking. How perfect is that?
Okay – I am off to find a BLS class – I need my certification prior to starting!!
by Kat | Mar 6, 2008 | General
and by the end of the day it will stand for EMPLOYED! Or at least I hope it will – I know I have a job, but I am waiting for HR to get the paperwork together. Until I have that, I am in a bit of limbo, but that is alright with me.
Yes, that is right – yesterday I went to take my state test and ….. I PASSED! WOOO HOOOO!
It was all in all a very emotionally draining day – I had a funeral to attend in the morning for someone who was just 23 days older than me. We grew up together – his family and my family were close. His mom could easily be my “second mother”. Somedays life makes no sense at all.
So, after that I flew home to change clothes – I had to wear my school “scrubs” to my test and get myself to Grand Rapids to the testing site. I was worried about being there on time, but I made it with a five minute window to spare!! The test is set up in a “hospital” type room set up – and you have a “student actor” and a manikin to perform your selected skills on. There is a dour-faced tester who observes everything that you do. And, this dour-faced tester reads you the test instructions word for word – (ummm, hello, I can read). This always amazes me – you mean that you do not have to read to take this test??? She then reads word for word the skills that have been selected for you to perform. Yeah, well – my student actor was nice and, fortunately, I can talk to anybody – about anything. Even the manikin – yep, I am just chatting away with the manikin as I give her a partial bed bath. And, when I get to her right arm – oops, she is missing it. “Whew, one less thing to wash”, I say – I thought the instructor was going to wet herself she laughed so hard. She then says to me, “I had no idea the manikin was missing an arm”… So, I passed the clinical exam and the written exam!
I felt I deserved a bit of a treat, so I headed off for City Knitting to get some yarn. Okay, I know I don’t need any yarn… but I am taking a dyeing class there on March 15 with Rita Petteys of Yarn Hallow Yarns fame and I needed to get yarn to dye. I am excited to take this class!! Very excited – I did not select any “white” yarns to dye, I picked out more natural shades – some grey laceweight, some pale brown and cream alpaca, and something else that I cannot remember right now. Anyways, my treat for me – just because.
So, when I arrived home last night I was ready to collapse – but I had to run Heidi around to get a few things she needed. But, when I arrived home there was a package waiting for me at the door!
My Spa Swap package had arrived! Renee was my partner for this round of Lynne’s Special Swap and she sent me a package that is sure to energize me!! Renee must be my twin because we sent each other amazingly similar packages!! She sent me some wonderful things! And it all started with a card that she made by hand! She packed in my “Spa Day” package some great Burt’s Bees products! I love Burt’s Bees! My lips, hands, feet, and elbows thank you Renee!! She also sent me some aromatherapy soy candles! I wish you all could have smelled the aroma that wafted out of the package when I opened it – mmmmm, so nice. Another votive candle to add to my “tub collection”. I mean how special is it, gentle readers, to draw a nice hot bubble bath and light a gajillion candles and sit and soak. She tucked into the package a nice little portable journal so I can jot down notes. This I am going to tuck into my spinning bag – and I will start to keep better notes about what fibers I have and what I have spun. She also sent me some dark chocolate truffles… Oh. My. Gosh. Mmmmmmmm. Last, but not least – she sent me some Deram in Color Smooshy in Happy Forest! Now if this stuff does not make you energized, I don’t know what will. Smooshy is truly what this yarn is. My feet will certainly be doing a happy dance with socks knit from this on them. I will have to browse Ravelry and queue something up! And, hopefully I have my May Day Socks done soon so I can start knitting them!! Renee, thank you so much for such a great swap package! It so rocks!! And, thank you to our Swap Mama Lynne for matching me up with such a great partner!
Alright, I had better get off my butt and get something done this morning. Have a good day all!
